Shane Bacon mailbag: Mere glimpses won't get Tiger the win he needs
I always love this time of year in golf, when we take a collective breath following the British Open before going hard the rest of the season. Not only did we get Inbee Park, better known as The Most Dominant Golfer on the Planet, winning at Turnberry, but we had a little fun with Jason Day and Bubba in Canada, and Troy Merritt looking like a man that had won 10 times, not zero, over the weekend at the Quicken Loans National.
Oh, and we had a Tiger Woods sighting! His golf game is like the Loch Ness Monster at this point: We all think we see it at times, but nobody is sure it really exists. And Rory? Rory, are you there?
It’s going to be a fun couple of weeks, which means it’s a perfect time for a mailbag. If you want to send in a question in the future, fire it to me on Twitter at @shanebacon or over on Facebook here.
I may or may not be playing a practice round at Whistling Straits this week. Mailbag time! Let’s go.
@shanebacon what event happens first, TW wins again or Rickie wins a major?
— wesley whamond (@wesleywhamond) August 4, 2015
Bacon: We’re going to start it like this, huh? OK, I’m game.
It has to be a Rickie Fowler major win. Nobody in all of golf outside of Puma board members and Rickie Fowler’s mom has talked about how impressive his 2014 major season was — he finished in the top five in all four, joining a list of two men (Jack and Tiger) who should be introduced by first name only.
Fowler is a favorite at Whistling Straits, of course, but a better way to look at it is he’s a favorite at every major these days. He faded last year at the PGA Championship when he got a taste of the lead, but that’s fine, it takes some guys more time to figure out how to handle that moment. Fowler seems more and more comfortable not only winning but having the lead these days, something that is new in 2015. (The Players was a huge victory of course, but you can’t sleep on just how tough that Scottish Open field is.)
I think it’s lazy to say, “He’s going to win a major soon,” because we said the same thing about Colin Montgomerie, Luke Donald and Sergio Garcia (we all said that about Sergio), but if I had to rank the guys without majors who I think will eventually win one, it reads as this:
Fowler seems more ready to win a major than Woods does to win a tournament of any kind.
1. Jason Day
2. Rickie Fowler
3. Henrik Stenson
4. Hideki Matsuyama
5. Dustin Johnson
As for Tiger ... we have to all agree he looked really good at times last week, don’t we? I mean, he isn’t going to win any time soon, not with the erratic game he shows day to day, but at least he’s been able to do something for stretches at a couple of non-major events this summer.
I don’t see Woods winning with his current mindset on the golf course, but at least we saw a couple of positive signs at the Quicken Loans.
That said, Fowler all the way on this one. He competes in majors and finishes high consistently. That word — consistent — hasn’t been used to describe Tiger in two years (and counting).
@shanebacon Troy Merritt shot 61 for the 2nd time this year. How many players on Tour are capable of going this low? Over/Under 10?
— Josh Sanford (@J_Muscle) August 4, 2015
Bacon: Every PGA Tour pro (and Web.com Tour pro for that matter) can go that low. It’s silly how low these guys are capable of going, depending on the course setup.
The difference in a good player and a really, really, really good player is how each feasts on a golf course that is playable. A good player can shoot even par if he plays well, or a couple under, no matter how the course is really playing. A great player knows when the conditions are soft or the wind is down — it’s birdie central, and he wants to make as many birdies as he can.
Ask any PGA Tour pro what his low score is, and you’re going to get something around 60 or 61. Most of these guys have flirted with 59 at some point. It’s just the way their programmed.
That said, what Merritt has done this year is incredible. I was happy to see him get his first win. Shooting 61 twice in one season deserves something.
@shanebacon Where does 2010 PGA Champ Final Round rank in craziest major final rounds? (on Golf Channel tonight!) 7 leaders and DJ meltdown
— foryourbenefit (@foryourbenefit) August 4, 2015
Bacon: So crazy that I had to go re-watch it mid-mailbag! (Quick shoutout to Golf Channel: Keep rolling out the “Golf’s Greatest Rounds.” Heck, do five a week! It’s some of the best golf viewing of my week, and I think I speak for a lot of golf fans when I say, there is no overkill of replayed golf, especially good golf. Kudos, “Greatest Rounds” is so solid.)
Between the Nick Watney meltdown, the Zach Johnson steadiness, the Steve Elkington sighting (what was that about?!), the fact that Rory McIlory and Jason Dufner basically looked exactly the same (I miss Fat Rory), the birdie-birdie run by Dustin Johnson on 16 and 17 only to have the whole grounding-the-club fiasco on the 18th, and then a playoff between two guys who at the time didn’t have majors and now both have two and will most likely add to that as their careers go along. It was amazing.
Seriously, think about the 2010 PGA happening in 2015 for a minute. Rory, Bubba, Dustin, Zach, Kaymer, Dufner, and a random old guy trying to steal the Wanamaker from all these studs? Toss Jordan Spieth in there and we might have the best major of the last decade!
And speaking of, the PGA Championship just doesn’t get enough credit. Everyone always ranks it fourth on their list of favorite majors, which makes sense because it lacks the tradition and beauty of Augusta National, the prestige of the U.S. Open and the uniqueness of the British Open, but the PGA has given us some of the best majors by far dating back to Tiger’s first win there.
Going back to 1999, we had the Tiger vs. Sergio battle at Medinah, Tiger and Bob May in 2000, David Toms outlasting a major-less Phil Mickelson in Atlanta in ’01, Rich Beem holding off Tiger in ’02 despite Woods making four closing birdies, Shaun Micheel hitting one of the most clutch shots to close out a major ever in ’03, Vijay Singh in a playoff at Whistling Straits in ’04, Phil’s lone PGA win in ’05 coming after he tapped the Jack Nicklaus plaque on the 18th at Baltusrol before making a closing birdie to win by one, Tiger adding a fourth and fifth in ’06 and ’07, Padraig holding off Sergio in ’08, Y.E. Yang basically ending Tiger’s career in ’09 with whatever happened at Hazeltine, seven players tied for the lead on Sunday at Whistling Straits in ’10, Keegan and Dufner in an exciting playoff in ’11, Rory’s emergence as the best player in the world in ’12, Dufner showing that the shakiest of strokes can win a major when you knock down every flag in ’13, and last year, an amazing final round that saw Rory hold off Phil, Henrik Stenson and Rickie Fowler in the fading light at Valhalla.
Whew. The PGA needs more credit. It continues to provide us with amazing majors (and if it’s an absolute stinker this year, I will gladly take all the blame).
@shanebacon @FOXSports what's your favorite PGA Championship venue?
— Michael Cummings (@mcummings003) August 5, 2015
Bacon: Whistling Straits is up there, because it is so tough and can play so many different ways, but I’m a sucker for Atlanta Athletic Club. Love the golf course, love the way it finishes, think it is fair, but stern, and I think the 18th is an amazing finishing hole that does something few finishing holes do; it makes you hit every shot perfect. Miss the fairway and it’s almost always a lay-up. If you hit the fairway, it’s a tough second over water and the green is tricky.
Shane Bacon is a regular contributor to FOXSports.com's golf coverage. Follow him on Twitter at @shanebacon.
